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Don’t Follow My Blueprint for Success

When I was younger, the way I learned things was to try and mimic the people I saw doing whatever it was that I wanted.

My first memory of doing that was when I was nine. We were watching TV and I remember seeing someone juggle on screen.

I thought, “that would be cool.”

But I didn’t know how to juggle, obviously, and I was disappointed because it was going to be a whole week before we were scheduled to go back to the public library.

So I couldn’t even check out a book on juggling.

So I decided that the only way to learn was to watch and mimic.

So I did.

And guess what? I learned how to juggle.

Success, right?

Well, kinda.

I mean, I got to where I could juggle three balls fairly well, but throw in another one, or juggle some irregular-shaped items, forget it.

I couldn’t add anything onto the three balls I knew how to juggle so I just kind of stopped learning.

I reached my initial goal and I was happy with that.

Looking back, I realize that learning how to juggle, at least with the balls, wasn’t very hard.

All it took was a desire, some persistence, and a little bit of creativity on how to go about learning.

The same is true with learning how to do or be anything.

All it takes is a desire, some persistence, and a little creativity.

It’s easy to look at other successful translators and want to study the exact methods that they used to teach their success.

Hell, there are whole industries and incomes built in the idea that all you need is the exact blueprint for doing something and you will have the exact same success that the person who is selling you the blueprint had.

It doesn’t matter if it’s the fitness and health industry, the make-millions-online-overnight industry, or anything in between.

Everyone is selling a blueprint with claims that it will cure your ills, no matter what they are.

Here’s the truth, though, that people fail to realize.

A truth that I want you to understand as you pursue a career as a successful professional translator.